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Topekans label claims of 'birther' as racist

California lawyer calls critics 'thugs,' 'animals'

After being told to leave the builiding Orly Taitz, a California-based attorney and leading figure in the "birther" movement, stood on the sidewalk talking to media as those that disagreed with her held signs and offered their thoughts on the situation.

Two Topeka community leaders labeled as false Tuesday claims of a California lawyer who asserted she was threatened by black men behaving like "animals" and "thugs" after she unsuccessfully argued Barack Obama should be dropped from the presidential ballot in Kansas.

Ben Scott and Otto Vaughn, who attended the State Objections Board proceeding chaired by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, said remarks by Orly Taitz characterizing the aftermath of the hearing were inaccurate and racist.

Taitz, regarded as a "birther" who believes Obama ineligible to run for president because of his citizenship status, appeared Monday at the ballot challenge hearing. The panel unanimously voted to close the case brought by a Manhattan Republican who believed Obama lacked standing due to evidence he wasn't a natural-born U.S. citizen.

After the hearing, Taitz said Kansas officials were duped into retaining the president on the November ballot. Her view was challenged by Obama supporters. Persistent, loud debate among rivals in the lobby of Memorial Hall led a police officer to order two individuals — Taitz and T.J. Gaughan, of Topeka — to exit the building.

Taitz said later in a statement she was partially encircled by 20 men, most of them African-American, who led her to conclude "in a minute they would beat me up."

"Obama's people were yelling, screaming and acted like wild animals," Taitz said. "I was silent and politely listened to what they had to say."

Scott and Vaughn said Taitz presented a false picture of events. The statement by Taitz that she was cornered by black men eager to do violence to a white woman was a lie, they said.

"We didn't talk with her," said Scott, president of the Topeka NAACP. "She called us 'animals.' I don't have a problem saying it was a racist remark."

Vaughn, who had a great-grandfather who was a slave, said the most vocal critics of Taitz after the hearing were both white.

"There were no black males surrounding her," Vaughn said. "That lady, I feel sorry for her. A bigot is a bigot."

Kobach, Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, all Republicans, agreed Thursday to delay a decision in the ballot case until they could obtain copies of birth records on Obama. Manhattan resident Joe Montgomery unexpectedly withdrew his complaint Friday.

On Monday, Kobach and two officials substituting for Schmidt and Colyer accepted documents affirming the president's birth in Hawaii.